Books Currently watching 'The Big Read' and nominating. Simply because it would be boring to pick the same as everyone else and something everyone else will have read, I've picked 'Father Time' by Lance Parkin. In the notes box there I wrote: "It's a cut above the usual tie-in novels, creating a realistic portrayal of 80s Britain within a very specific science fiction setting evoking nostalgia in the reader not just for the television programme but the time when they were watching it. Also an interesting us of a Phil Collins song." I would have added that it also shows that real literature can exist in place usually ignored by the mainstream. If I'd wanted to be the same as everyone else I might have picked 'Return of the Native' by Thomas Hardy; 'The Wind in the Willows' by Kenneth Graham; 'The Midnight Folk' by John Masefield. Despite being called 'The Big Read', non-fiction has been discounted. So I'm not allowed to pick 'Longitude' by Dava Sobel, 'With Nails' by Richard E Grant, 'Adventures in the Screen Trade' by William Goldman or 'The Victorian Internet' by Tom Standage.

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